Hammond Rise (WA) - Content-Living Build

Likemike55 · Jan 14, 2013 2:02 am

Good day all! After reading through many of the home building threads on this forum and learning so much, I thought it was time that I also shared my build

I'm actually already up to brick laying stage (about to lay) but better late than never as they say.

Background!
It was around June 2012 when I decided I wanted to be more independent and move into my own house whilst also reducing my travel time from my current residence in Rockingham to closer to Perth where I work. I had a look around the Cockburn area (about 22km south of Perth) for what land was available and visited the Honey-wood estate, Hammond Rise, Piara waters, Atwell and Aubin Grove. I finally decided on Hammond Rise (about 4km south of Cockburn) and secured a North-facing 501 square metre block. I chose this estate as I thought the developer had done a very good job in the layout and the price was also about right. I did consider the Honey-wood estate as well but this was out of my price range =P

After I had visited a few display villages in Lakelands, Baldivis and Honey-wood I decided to go with Content-Living and build their Scottsdale house plan. I liked the a lot of features of the design such as:
-Laundry being located away from all bedrooms
-Very large and open combined meals/living/family room
-Store room in Garage
-The Price!

Here is the original house-plan!

And Elevation

And here is the altered houseplans!

And also my own altered elevation (Self drawn

), as the original was pretty uninspiring.

Alterations & Variations
-Upgrade front door to 1200mm Corinthian Infinity INFWS 6G Hinged door
-Reduced the garage storage space to allow space for a walk in pantry
-Additional Stylus Venecia Basin to WC 1
-Additional doors on all walk in robes
-Upgrade to two above counter sinks in en-suite and also extending the bench-top the whole length of the wall
-Increased shower size
-Upgrade Laundry tub to Clark Eureka 45L Stainless Steel Trough
-Upgrade cook-top to cast iron hot plate
-Chrome floor wastes (wet are drain covers)
-Wood look garage door
-Enlarged living room windows
-Additional external lights and many more (GPOs) power points!
-Upgrade standard pavers to Stonewash Pavers for driveway (brikmakers)
-Upgrade to Ceramic toilet pans

I spent about 3 hours at pre-start which was pretty straight forward. The pre-start officer was pretty good, and made a few recommendations that I accepted, such as flipping the side that the WIR doors open (so they opened against the wall). I also decided to allow the builder to do the driveway, crossover and the gully drain and accompanying soak-well as it wasn't too much more expensive than doing it afterwards.

Afterthoughts
The upgrade and upsize of the front entry door was actually quite a major one. To make way for the wider door, we had to increase the entry hall width to suit. This meant pushing the study and garage outwards, which increases the house footprint by a few square metres. Overall I was happy with this as it meant I also had a slightly larger house

The store room was a good feature of the original house plan, but I really wanted a walk in pantry, thus I reduced the storeroom size to make way for a walk in pantry. There's still about 700mm left of storage recess in the garage which will still fit a small workbench in

I also removed that 1120mm 22c high wall near the kitchen as i wanted that area to be as open as possible.

I am having second thoughts about how I have changed the layout of the en-suite bathroom. Originally I thought the en-suite was a bit wasteful by having the toilet in a separate room. So my new layout moved the toilet out and then made room for a bigger shower. I also added an extra basin and then extended the bench top the whole length of the wall. Now (3 months later) I'm thinking that the en-suite looks too small and cramped and I wish I had made it more spacious!

Timeline!
15 July 2012 Offer of purchase for Land (Deposit Placed)
30 July 2012 Signed Preparation of drawings agreement with Content-Living (deposit Placed)
02 October 2012 Pre-start!
26 October 2012 Settlement on land
05 December 2012 Pad Levelled and rebar delivered
15 December 2012 Footings poured and rebar laid
17 December 2012 Slab poured!
22 December 2012 Window frames and port-a-loo delivered
--Christmas break!-- =(
09 January 2013 Bricks delivered!
11 January 2013 Walls Drawn out on slab & slab sides sealed up

Previous stages photos!
Pad Levelled Stage

Shot from the road, key points are Stormwater drain centre, retaining wall at back and there is a lightpost on the left boundary

View from the corner of the garage

Neighbour's house across the road already with roof on! Grrr!

Footings Poured and Rebar laid Stage

Garage on the Left, Study and entrance in the middle and the Master bedroom on the right

A view showing the laundry at the closest and the master bedroom at the far back

Footings for Alfresco, the retaining wall is about 1m high at the back

Slab Poured Stage went straight after work, poured only hours earlier!

View from front

View front master bedroom corner

Shot from laundry, facing master bedroom

Shot from laundry again but showing garage on right

More Photos to come guys!

Overall I am very happy with the service from Content-Living. Their sales representive in the Lakelands display village was very helpful and could price all alterations straight on the spot! And the house of course so far has come under budget

I hope the rest of the build goes well without a hitch

I'll refine this a bit more tommorow and post some real photos I took before, it's bed time now

And also does anyone know why the words Content-Living (without the -) are not allowed on these forums? :S

Ronni · Jan 14, 2013 2:32 am

Looks good, looking forward to following your build!

1rocky · Jan 14, 2013 7:09 am

looks great
like the changes you have made
looking forward t more pics as your build comes along

Nicci · Jan 14, 2013 4:02 pm

Welcome and congratulations on the build.. i wish i got store space as i dont want my partner to have a shed out the back..look forward to seeing the progress of your build.

fmac · Jan 14, 2013 4:08 pm

Welcome! Looks like a great sized house! I can't wait till we see some brings and this prestart stuff is all signed off!

Likemike55 · Jan 15, 2013 12:09 am

Thanks guys! It is my first home so there will be mistakes and compromises but hopefully I haven't missed anything too crucial

I've updated the floor plan with the final version showing all my last alterations(also a much clearer scan courtesy of the work printers xD).

Nicci, I hope my store is still big enough to not need a shed as well (for now)! but I just had to have a walk in pantry!

Here are the latest photos of the block showing the preparation for brick laying stage. I've added earlier photos I took into the original post.

Bricks Delivered 10-01-2013
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My bricks just delivered!, went by just after work (6:30pm!)

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Bricks on Slabs

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The bricks I've chosen, Alkimos style from Brikmakers. Pretty good finish on them, satisfied!

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Here's an interesting shot from the temporay cul-de-sac at the end of my street

Pre Bricklaying Stage, Slab Sides Sealed 12-01-2013
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A shot of the ensuite bathroom. It's so cool when you can see where the wall will be going

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Windows ready to be put on living area side, so many bricks!

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Bed 3 in top corner, with WC 1 and Bathroom in the middle and bottom right.

I'll drive over tomorow after work again to see where they're up too, hopefully they've laid a few courses already

Nicci · Jan 15, 2013 4:31 pm

How exciting, bricking soon.. i am so jealous, wish mine would be at your stage already.

Likemike55 · Jan 16, 2013 10:19 pm

Hello again, went to visit my block again yesterday and to my delight they have almost finished the right and rear side external walls! Very happy with progress, I'd imagine they will finish most of the external face brick walls by end of this week

And of course photos!

First Walls Up
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Here we see the front right corner of the master bedroom. The face bricks stop abrubtly here, as my front elevation will be rendered. I'm pretty happy with the workmanship so far, but this is only the beginning!

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Here we are looking throught the home theatre window. Unfortunately due to new regulation, I had to put such a large window as I had put a door on the theatre room. Apparently all closed off rooms must have a certain sized window to suit

I'll just have to buy some really thick blockout curtains later on

, but that does mean later on this could become a bedroom quite easily if needed.

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This is the back right corner of the house where i have 2 bedrooms. I wish I had added an extra window on the corner bedroom, as it looks a bit strange having a good 5m of wall and no windows :S Also the diagonal transition of colours in the mortar is where the work on Monday ended and Tuesday's work started

I hope when it fully dries, the line is no longer visible!

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Probably my favourite photo! Looking through the huge alfresco sliding door frame (23x13 1/2 course), can really see how well the progress is coming

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And just a shot of the corner where the shower will be for the main bathroom. Interestingly I see some brick layers use scaffolding to put up the higher courses, but these guys seem to prefer footsteps.

Well overall I am very happy to see such progress. I did notice though as I stood inside the rear bedrooms that they did feel a little small. They are about 2.8m x 3.4m which is a tad small, I think the fairly large walk-in-robes will compensate for that though hopefully

More to come later!

fmac · Jan 16, 2013 10:25 pm

Looks great!
Our minor bedrooms are only 2.8x2.7, even smaller with no built in robe! We had to make compromises with the size of our block.

Those minor rooms will be bigger then the ones we had growing up and I think I'd prefer the living space rather then bedrooms.

AKB · Jan 16, 2013 10:53 pm

That's so true fmac, as a child of the 70's the 3 bed 1 bath was standard and my bedroom was smaller than yours but as a child I can't ever remember thinking I wish I had a larger bedroom

AKB · Jan 16, 2013 10:54 pm

That's so true fmac, as a child of the 70's the 3 bed 1 bath was standard and my bedroom was smaller than yours but as a child I can't ever remember thinking I wish I had a larger bedroom

PS Likemike55 great design I love the laundry off the kitchen

JTUK · Jan 17, 2013 9:42 pm

Looking great Mike! Keep us updated

!

JTUK · Jan 17, 2013 9:52 pm

Also a random feel good fact for you - your house will be more than double the size of the average UK house (Not including your Garage and Alfresco!).

Likemike55 · Jan 18, 2013 10:26 pm

Ahhh I must sound so greedy when your rooms are so much smaller! I do live in a fairly sizeable house at the moment and we really don't make good use of space. I think I'd prefer a smaller house just so there's less maintenance!

True you only really sleep in your bedrooms, I think I have a pretty good balance of living space and bedroom. I think i'll spend most of my time in the theatre room and kitchen for snacks though haha.

And Jason! a very unambiguous name you've used hahah. When I think of England housing, I always think of those massive rows of identical houses like in Charlie and the chocolate factory

I was down at my block again yesterday after work, and of course I took many photos. They've bricked up most of the left side of the house now, and only the front remains (of the external bricks).

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Ahh yes here we can see the left side garage wall all bricked up, and pretty much all of the rear and right side walls too!

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Here the entire left side of the house has been bricked up!

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They've finished the master bedroom wall to full height now, and put in the ensuite bathroom window

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Ahh here I'm actually standing just behind the retaining wall at the rear of my block. It's about 1m high. Oh yes and we're looking at the 2 rear bedrooms!

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Oh and here is the alfresco sliding door on the left, and we can also see the laundry sliding door further down on the right! I'm really loving the layout of the laundry being next to the kitchen.

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And here is my garage wall (I'm sure you can tell

) My garage isn't actually on the boundary, and I have space down both sides of the house. Looking at it now, I probably should have pulled out the laundry wall to be flush with the garage's. Ahh too late now, and I suppose the nook will be good for putting my rubbish bins there

.

I took about 30 photos, you can view them all on my photo bucket album if you want

http://s1337.beta.photobucket.com/user/ ... 17-01-2013

Also I still need to arrange cabling for my house. I'm not sure whether to go through intelligent homes (Very expensive i've heard?) or another contractor. Or I could just do it after handover, All my rooms actually have double brick walls next to them so I think I could get cables run through the cavity later (might do it myself as I'm already quite broke xD).

My cabling wants/needs are:
-Network ports in all rooms
-Speaker conduits in the theatre room (so I can hide the rear speaker cables)
-Security alarm
-NBN equipment thingie, as my estate apparently is NBN ready ;P

So far so good! No issues yet except sorting out my cabling/smartwiring stuff! I hope to move in by May-June, but we'll see

englewestern · Jan 19, 2013 6:43 pm

Love your design! Love the speed with which Content are building your home.

We are also commencing building with Content - hoping march or april for slab down.

Will be following your thread keenly - keep posting pictures

kaykens · Jan 19, 2013 9:54 pm

Give the cabling a go yourself I rekon! I would only pay someone if your design was a nightmare old school design but yours looks very workable. I'm not a sparky or anything by any means but have done my own cabling with the old man at our current houses without too much of a drama. Good laughs and cheaper than paying a pro. My 2 cents anyway

englewestern · Jan 19, 2013 11:51 pm

Hi Likemike,

In your alterations you state that you added chrome wastes... what is this in reference to?

fmac · Jan 20, 2013 2:21 am

Wastes are the drains in the bathroom, laundry and toilets to stop the area fom flooding if something overflows, and in the shower to drain the water away.

Some builders use plastic as their standard so you have to upgrade to get chrome or these days there are also some really fancy ones where you can fit a piece of tile to them so they are even less noticeable!

Likemike55 · Jan 20, 2013 3:03 am

Yes that's right, my builder only give you plastic wastes (drain thingies in your wet areas) as standard on the promotional range. I paid $25 per waste to be upgraded to chrome. And as fmac mentioned, the wastes with the tile inserts are very nice and snazzy! You can buy them for about $35-40 off eBay and then get your tiler to put them in. Thinking about it now, I wish I did go with the tile insert wastes as they are only a bit more if I source them myself, but hey as long as it's not that horrid plastic stuff that discolours after a few years

On the topic of cabling, I have booked a consultation with Intelligent Home next week to see how much it will cost to put in what I want. I'd rather get it done now so I can move in straight away but I'm also on a tight budget!

Ugh hopefully the quote is reasonable

englewestern · Jan 20, 2013 8:47 pm

Does anyone have any experience with insert tile drains? Are they simple to clean? Do they require more regular cleaning than a normal drain?